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From New Militant, Vol. II No. 19, 16 May 1936, p. 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
After a lapse of almost six years, the Tenth Congress of the All-Union Leninist (read: Stalinist) Komsomol, originally scheduled to open on March 20, was finally convened on April 11. The Tenth Congress met for 10 days in the Great Hall of the Kremlin to take up the following agenda:
At its last session the Congress unanimously adopted a new program and a new constitution which set the seal of approval upon the already achieved transformation of the Y.C.L. into a non-party, non-class, non-political organization for the propagation of culture.
The draft program of the newly constituted Young Culture League is rather brief, occupying about 5 columns of Pravda’s six column page (March 27).
Three-fifths of this new program is devoted to a preamble which sets forth five theses.
Thesis 1: The October Revolution took place in 1917, overthrew the rule of the bourgeoisie and established the dictatorship of the proletariat. (Two quotations from Stalin).
Thesis 2: A description of capitalism with particular stress on the plight of the youth, in capitalist countries.
Thesis 3: A lyrical description of Socialism in the U.S.S.R., and the fortunate position of the youth there.
This is the longest “thesis” of all, and it begins with the affirmation that the proletariat in alliance with the peasantry not only overthrew the bourgeoisie in Russia but also “transformed the formerly backward, poverty-ridden, bankrupt country into an advanced, powerful Socialist power.” It concludes by declaring that: “Socialism has become a reality for the many-millioned peoples of the Great U.S.S.R. ... The conditions are being prepared for the transition from socialism – the first stage of communist society – to complete communism.” In short, a socialism is in full bloom; communism is just around the corner.
Thesis 4: This thesis is very brief and to the point. It informs us that in addition to overthrowing the bourgeoisie and building socialism, the working class has established a workers’ state which does not give the slightest signs of withering away although “all the classes have been completely destroyed,” and although “socialism has irrevocably triumphed.” Among other things, Soviet power is necessary as a great cultural and moral institution which “plants discipline and respect for socialist laws and the rules of communal living, and imbues all the toilers with an honest attitude toward labor and social duty without which the complete victory of socialism cannot be realized.”
Thesis 5: Sums up the situation. The C.P.S.U. and the Soviet Government are busy “organizing the communist system.” while the role of the Y.C.L. must be that of a ‘“mass, non-party organization ... embracing in its ranks ... wide strata of the advanced and politically educated toiling youth of the city and country.” Its task is to aid the Bolshevik Party “in the cause of educating the youth and children in the spirit of Communism.”
The preamble ends with a quotation from Stalin to the effect that all this is according to Marx and Lenin.
I. In the Sphere of the Political Education of the Youth. The Y.C.L. organizes the study of the “basic ideas of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin,” publishes its own papers, magazines etc., both political and literary, organizes clubs, libraries, and reading rooms, and carries on a “patient” campaign against ... “superstition” and “religious prejudices” as well as against the “remnants of chauvinism.”
With socialism blooming, the youth must be agitated against superstitions and religion!
We append the verbatim translation of the “anti-religious propaganda” clause:
“The Y.C.L. patiently explains to the youth the harm of superstition and religious prejudices, organizing with this aim in view special circles and lectures on anti-religious propaganda.”
II. In the Sphere of the Education of the Youth. Amplifies the immortal statement of Stalin that the youth “must study, study, study in the most stubborn way.” Pledges the youth to liquidate illiteracy and to organize clubs, etc. to raise the cultural level of the socialist masses, and so on.
III. In the Sphere of Work in the School and among Children. Particular stress laid on the Y.C.L. taking the lead in supplying children with good toys.
IV. In the Sphere of the Physical Development of the Youth.
V. In the Sphere of Participating in the Socialist Construction. The youth is instructed to take the lead in Stakhanovism (although the name Stakhanovism is not mentioned in the draft), and is asked to assist the Soviet State in “strengthening the family.”
VI. In the Sphere of the Defense of the Socialist Fatherland. The Y.C.L. is turned into a reserve force of the Red Army. The new constitution provides that:
“Every member of the Komsomol shall study military technique, be supremely devoted to the great Socialist fatherland and be ready to give all his strength and if necessary his life itself.”
From a political organization of the youth, the Y.C.L. has been transformed into a “non-party mass organization” for “political and cultural education,” with a particular stress upon the mobilization of the youth for the “patriotic defense of the U.S.S.R.”
The age limit has been changed from 14–23 years to 15–26, and the Komsomol will admit into its ranks every boy and girl, who is “politically fit” without any regard to his or her social origin.
To put the full weight of authority behind this decision the following little scene was staged at one of the meetings of the Stakhanovists in the Kremlin: young Tilba, a combine operator rose to his feet and said: “Although I am the son of a kulak I will go on struggling to improve the life of the workers and peasants, I will go on building Socialism.” Thereupon, Stalin arose and declared to a wildly cheering gathering, “A son is not responsible for the sins of his father.” Young Tilba’s photograph was reprinted in every paper in the country.
The Commissariat of Education issued a decree admitting the sons and daughters of declassed people to Soviet universities and colleges. And the Komsomol now incorporates Stalin’s pronounciamento into its statutes.
The only comment we shall make about the changes effected in the constitution and statutes of the Y.C.L. will be to quote from the Program of the Young Communist International, adopted at the Fifth World Congress of the Y.C.I. confirmed by the Presidium of the E.C.C.I. on March 13, 1929. In other words, we shall quote against Stalin.
“There are fundamental differences in the conceptions of the Communists on the one hand, and the social democrats on the other as to the role of the youth and the youth organization in general. There are some unessential shadings between the bourgeoisie and the social democracy, but the fundamental conception of both is the same. Social democracy for the most part declares the role of the youth organizations to be ‘purely’ educational or cultural ... The Y.C.L. is a political organization ... It must strive to gain the majority of the working youth, and the other decisive sections of the toiling youth ... The Y.C.L. repudiates the theory of Y.C.L ‘neutrality’ – in political struggles within ‘the party ... Political activity must not be confined to the higher bodies of the Y.C.L., but must permeate the entire organization ... In accordance with its political role and social character as an organization of the working youth, the Y.C.L. ensures that the working class membership plays the leading role ...” (Program of the Y.C.L., pp. 33–34–46)
To repeat these words today in the U.S.S.R. (approved by Stalin himself in 1929) is to lay oneself open to indictment as a counter-revolutionary “Trotskyist” and to run the danger of imprisonment and exile.
While the leadership of the Komsomol has accepted the changes without so much as a stutter, there has been considerable opposition from the rank and file. Thus, P. Vershkov, secretary of the C.E.C. of the Komsomol, expresses his astonishment over the fact that “among the Komsomol membership there are people who consider such a definition of the Komsomol (i.e., as a non-party, etc. organization) to be incorrect in principle.”
Speaking at the session of the Ukrainian Komsomol P. Postyshev said, “Individual activists here and there are not pleased with the draft of the new constitution ... is is precisely the position of Trotskyists and other ‘Leftists’.”
The young bureaucrats, who are obediently executing the orders of Stalin, declare that all the criticisms levelled at the new program and new constitution are manifestations of nothing else than “vanguardism,” the viewing of the Y.C.L. as a “youth party.”
“What was the purpose of all these appeals (i.e., objections to the changes introduced) to the Y.C.L.ers? To make them doubt, to impel them to take a critical attitude to the decisions of our party, not to into consideration the party authorities, to ignore the revolutionary traditions of the older generations, etc. Translated into the language of organizational principles all this would signify the crystallization of the Komsomol as a party independent of our party, a separate party organization.” (Postyshev’s Speech, Pravda, April 11, 1936)
The bureaucracy as a whole has been extremely cautious in its references on the extent of the “counter-revolutionary influences” upon the youth. But we can gather a pretty clear picture from the veiled remarks. Kossarev in his report complained that “among the propagandists there are many comrades who are obviously untrained, while here and there, for example, in the Leningrad organization we have had revelations not only of untrained people but also of enemies – Trotskyists, Zinovievists and so on.” (Pravda, April 13)
Looking for an example of an instance “here and there” Kossarev points to nothing other than the leading Leningrad organization! And, moreover, he assigns the first place in Leningrad, the traditional stronghold of the Zinovievists, not to the latter but to the “Trotskyists.” This fact alone speaks volumes.
The depraved bureaucracy which found it relatively simple to crush the older revolutionary generations of the Russian working class, is in mortal terror of the youth. This is what underlies the political and organizational liquidation of the Komsomol. The youth must be removed completely from political life; Its thoughts and energies must be channelized into the fields of culture and sports. They must “study, study, study,” preferably not the classics of Marxism, but “belles lettres.” The working class youth must be dissolved in the millions of peasant youth, and thus fettered ...
Stalin has decreed it a crime for any youth between “the ages of 15 and 26” to occupy himself with politics.
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